1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system for determining the arrangement of graphic segments or elements in computer graphic systems. More specifically, the invention relates to computer graphic systems capable of detecting interference between adjacent graphic elements or segments in a computer aided graphic system, such as a computer aided designing (CAD) system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In modern industry, there is a trend to employ CAD systems for designing new products because of ease of application of computer aided manufacturing (CAM) or numerical control on production lines. For this, various CAD systems have been developed and introduced into the market.
The CAD system permits a designer to work on computer graphics for determining positions and orientations of components or parts of the products as well as dimensions, configurations and so forth, on a graphic display screen. To enable this, graphic symbols, graphic images and so forth representing respective components or parts are arranged in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional coordinate system on a computer display monitor. Such graphic representations of the components or parts of the product will be hereafter referred to as "graphic elements" or "graphic segments". Also, it should be noted that the term "interference" throughout the disclosure represents not only mechanical interference, such as collision and blocking of motion of the components or parts, but also electrical or magnetic interference affecting the operation of neighboring components or parts.
In such CAD technologies, it is necessary to avoid interference between graphic elements or segments so that interference between components or parts may not be imparted to the actual products. Avoidance of interference of components or parts of the actual products at the CAD stage may eliminate the necessity of re-designing after trial production, which otherwise requires redundant work in the design center and prototype center in the industry.
In the prior proposed or developed CAD systems, checks for interference of the components or parts are performed after completing arrangement of all necessary graphic segments in the CAD system. This enables the designer to discern the occurrence of interference of the components or parts in the design before the design is transferred to the prototype center thus avoiding the necessity of re-designing following discovery of interference in the prototype at the prototype stage. Therefore, designing efficiency can be improved by detecting potential interferences at the computer model stage.
On the other hand, however, once interference between components or parts is found at the checking stage in the CAD system, the designer has to re-arrange the graphic segments representing the interfering components or parts of the product. Re-arrangement of one graphic segment often creates additional interference with other components or parts and can result in the necessity for a re-arrangement of various graphic segments. Especially, when the product has a complex construction in which a plurality of parts are arranged at high density, re-arrangement of one graphic segment can affect many other segments and may require troublesome re-arrangement thus increasing the time required for designing. Furthermore, when interference occurs at a plurality of graphic segments, a complex and difficult re-arrangement of various graphic segments becomes necessary thus degrading the workability of the product. This clearly reduces the efficiency of designing.